DES MOINES, IOWA — Kemin Industries supported its expansion into the baking industry with the opening of its Bakery Innovation Center at its global headquarters in Des Moines.

Over the past year, Kemin has launched batch packs, premixes, emulsifiers and enzyme blends that are specifically designed for flatbread and other baked food formulations. To help support new and existing bakery customers, the company invested $1.5 million into an innovation center where bakers can expedite the commercialization of new products.

“This is a really exciting time for Kemin and our team as our new Bakery Innovation Center opens,” said Courtney Schwartz, marketing director, Kemin Food Technologies. “This center expands our bakery footprint and introduces new capabilities made possible with the latest technology and a dedicated team of experts.”

The new 2,300-square-foot facility includes an analytical lab, accelerated stability facility, pilot plant, and ingredient blending and small batch capabilities.

In the pilot plant, bakers can take advantage of a complete tortilla line with a combination corn and flour tortilla oven that mimic commercial production. The analytical lab lets customers evaluate baked foods for texture and microbial stability. A texture analyzer evaluates dough and finished products under all moisture variations. The accelerated stability facility allows Kemin to run shelf life studies on finished products.

“Our new facility is a game-changer for our bakery business, as it gives us the opportunity to work more closely with our customer-partners,” said Anita Srivastava, Ph.D., CFS, senior product development manager, bakery applications, Kemin Food Technologies. “The Bakery Innovation Center gives us a way to screen and test all new ingredient solutions and processing parameters to ensure success, which is really exciting. Now, we do not have to wait for a commercial facility to become available in order to run trials.”

The Bakery Innovation Center gives Kemin’s customers a place to test their products with Kemin’s ingredients without losing previous production time to trial runs. It also gives bakers access to the company’s technologists.

“Investing in and expanding our team of bakery experts was just as important as building this facility because we are working together with our customer-partners to develop a new generation of bakery products that are sure to exceed consumers’ expectations,” Ms. Schwartz said.